Gender and slaughter in popular gastronomy

Abstract

Animal slaughter has lately become increasingly visible in popular food media. This article examines the gendered assumptions and assertions underpinning the killing of animals in popular gastronomy. In television cooking shows such as The F Word (2005—present), Kiwi Kitchen (2007—8) and Jamie’s Great Italian Escape (2005), both emotional concern for farmed animals and farmed animals themselves are feminized and denigrated, whilst slaughter and meat-eating are masculinized and celebrated. Conversely, in the recent cookbook-cum-memoir by Julie Powell, Cleaving: A Story of Meat, Marriage and Obsession, butchery and meat-eating are depicted as pathways to, and displays of, female empowerment. Both groups of gastronomy texts hold the domination of animals, demonstrated through the slaughter, butchery and consumption of non-human bodies, to be an integral component in the performance of gender.